


Equilateral

by Decepticonsensual



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 09:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20740232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Decepticonsensual/pseuds/Decepticonsensual
Summary: Canon divergence after the main plot of MTMTE/Lost Light wraps up.In the midst of helping to build a new home for the dispossessed Cybertronians following Unicron's rampage, Prowl finds himself drawn unexpectedly close to his ex-boyfriend and said ex's new husband - but he's floored when Chromedome and Rewind actually invite him into their bed.  And, perhaps even more shockingly, into their lives.  Now, Prowl has to decide whether the chance to be with Chromedome again is worth the pain of being a third wheel in Chromedome's marriage.  That is, until Rewind shows up with a revelation that turns Prowl's careful calcuations on their head...(Rated for suggestiveness and a few non-explicit sexual references.)





	Equilateral

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PurrElise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurrElise/gifts).

> A gift fic for TFN2019.

When the door chime sounded in the middle of the night, Prowl sighed. He’d been expecting this. To be frank, he was only surprised it had taken this long.

It had been almost three weeks since the morning Chromedome and Rewind had sought Prowl out, and everything had changed. They’d turned up at his office on New Cybertron without warning. Prowl had already grown used to seeing the pair around the settlement, and had even managed a cordial working relationship with each of them. Through Prowl’s office, exhausted Autobots and wary Decepticon refugees were frequently referred to Chromedome’s care. Surprisingly, though, Prowl had started spending an even greater amount of time with Rewind, tapping his skills for the new administration’s information service (and, naturally, squabbling with him over whichever scraps of Rewind’s wartime footage Prowl felt would be… less than conducive to the harmony of the new state, should they see the light of day). Prowl had come to terms, more or less, with the frequent company of his ex and his ex’s new husband (not so new, now, in fact). But staying professional was one thing. Seeing Chromedome and Rewind on his doorstep, hand in hand, had been something else. Prowl had been on the verge of making an excuse to leave his own office, when Chromedome had said to him breathlessly:

_ We want you to be with us. We want you to be a part of us. _

It had taken three repetitions – with Rewind stubbornly backing up his husband’s offer, to Prowl’s shock – before Prowl really absorbed that they meant to be  _ a part of their relationship.  _ Several hours of negotiation after that before Prowl had even been willing to consider the idea. Another two days before they convinced him to actually venture home with them.

Prowl shook his head, trying to dislodge the memory of that night as if it were a set of needles at the back of his neck, faintly annoyed that it still made him blush hot. As startlingly  sweet as that night – and the ones that followed – had been, he had always known that nothing came without a cost.

The door chimed again, and Prowl calculated that the cost had now come due. He steeled himself to face his once-again partner.

What he wasn’t expecting was Rewind, standing there alone, his fists on his hips and his visor glaring fearlessly up at Prowl.

“Well, will you look at that,” Rewind drawled. “He lives.”

“What do you want?”

“Charming.”

“What do you want,  _ sweetspark _ ?” Prowl trilled, his voice dripping sugar-sweet poison.

Rewind pushed past him, striding into Prowl’s office like he belonged there. “I want to know why you’ve pulled a disappearing act on us.”

“I’ve been right here. That would make for a pretty pathetic disappearing act, if you could come track me down immediately.” Prowl didn’t bother disguising his scorn. If he ever did need to disappear, he’d do the thing right. He had  _ contingencies  _ for that.

“Yeah, you have – and you’ll notice that we  _ didn’t _ . You’ve been holed up in here for more than a week, Prowl, never going back to your quarters, not answering our comms. We gave you space. Figures that you’d need to get your head straight.” Rewind stepped closer, toe-to-toe with Prowl. “But Chromedome’s starting to get worried.”

“Why? He has you, doesn’t he?”  _ Aren’t you enough to satisfy him anymore?  _ Prowl almost added, but bit down on his tongue.  That wasn’t fair. He was faintly surprised to discover that he also didn’t mean it; the thought had been a reflex, a relic of the long years he’d spent watching Chromedome with his new partners from a distance. Now, it had lost its venom, and that felt unnerving in itself.

“Is that what this is about? You’re pouting because we’ve been spending time together?”

  
“What? No – you’re his  _ husband.  _ Of course you need time for the two of you.”  _ His husband.  _ It rolled off his tongue so easily. Rewind was Chromedome’s husband, and Prowl was just…

What, exactly? The boundaries of it were frighteningly undefined.

Rewind looked at him for a moment longer, then turned and levered himself up onto Prowl’s desk chair. Grabbing Prowl’s elbow for leverage, he swung up so that he was standing on top of the desk itself, surveying Prowl from something more like optic level. Rewind’s fingers gave an imperious little twirl. “Sit down and turn around. Back to me.”

Prowl stared at him flatly. “This is the laziest assassination attempt I’ve ever endured.”

Rewind crossed his arms and gave a toss of his head that, Prowl knew well from his years with. Chromedome, was the equivalent of rolling his optics under the visor. “I’m not trying to  _ kill  _ you, for Primus’s sake.”

“Most people try sooner or later.” The corner of Prowl’s mouth quirked up.

Rewind didn’t laugh, though. Instead, his voice turned unbearably soft. “Do you really think I’m going to hurt you?”

Prowl swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. In lieu of an answer,  he sat down obediently in front of Rewind.

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t what he got: the pressure of small, dexterous fingertips sliding under his collar fairing, massaging overworked struts and straightening kinked wires. Of all the ways Rewind had touched him in the past few weeks, this, oddly, felt the most intimate. “You know what I think?” Rewind murmured in his audial, and Prowl shook his head, lips pressed tight to clamp down on the helpless little sounds he was worried might otherwise escape. “I think Detective Prowl, the one-time pride of the Iacon mechaforensics division, hasn’t pieced together what he’s actually gotten himself into here. I think that when Domey and I came to you, you saw a chance to get back with the ex you never really got over. Sure, it meant sharing him with someone you’d always hated -” Prowl did open his mouth to protest at that, but whatever he would have said turned into a hastily stifled moan as Rewind’s fingers dug into a particularly stubborn knot. “Worse, it meant living with the fact that you would always be a distant second to his marriage. You’d be stuck hanging around, waiting for whatever scraps of attention he threw you, and in the meantime you’d have to watch him with his conjunx. It wasn’t what you wanted – but it was so much more than you ever thought you’d have again.”

Rewind’s touches seemed to be growing even more gentle, even as his words felt like they were flaying Prowl from the inside out. He gasped, and Rewind’s right hand skated down to rub the base of one doorwing soothingly, while his left stilled on Prowl’s shoulder and simply held him there.

“So you started slinking away when he was spending too much time with me,” Rewind whispered, so very close. “Didn’t you?”

Prowl jerked away. “ _ Stop it. _ ” He hated the raggedness of his own ventilations, the rawness of his voice.

When Rewind spoke again, his voice was utterly even. “I  needed to make sure that’s what you thought,” he said. “Because I don’t get to say this often, so I want to relish it: You, Prowl, are completely, profoundly,  _ fragging cosmically wrong. _ ”

Prowl turned slowly, to find Rewind’s bright gaze pinning him.

“For starters, did Chromedome ever tell you that inviting you into our relationship was my idea?”

“No. No, he definitely did not.”   
  


“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, he was on board –  _ is  _ on board. But I was the one who suggested it. And you might have picked this up over the years, but I am a stubborn fragger and I don’t put up with slag.” There was a faint smile creeping into Rewind’s optics. “And I don’t invite people I don’t like into my berth, much less into my  _ marriage.  _ If you still want to be with us, then you’re my partner, too, not just Chromedome’s.” Rewind ran his fingers over the back of Prowl’s head, softly, gentling him like a wild animal who might still turn and run at any second. A month ago, Prowl might have resented that. Now, he leaned in, feeling something in his chest unknot.

“You’re not a distant second. You’re not an afterthought. And you’re not on the margins of Domey’s life. You’re in the centre of both of ours, if that’s what you want.” Rewind traced his thumb over Prowl’s cheek. “All or nothing, you stubborn aft.”

“All.” The sound of Prowl’s own voice surprised him, the eager, embarrassingly rough croak. “I choose you both. You infuriating little  _ gearstick. _ ”

“Back at you.” Rewind nuzzled him fondly, and then, with his head still leaned against Prowl’s shoulder, he was speaking into his comm unit. “Domey? Yeah, he is. Yup. No, we just had a good talk, is all.” He shot Prowl a sly look. “I think he gets it now.”

The door chime sounded again only seconds later. “Were you waiting in the  _ hallway _ ?” Prowl sniped, grinning and making no effort to move away from Rewind’s embrace. In fact, he brought one hand up to trail his fingertips down Rewind’s spinal strut, in full view of his – their – partner.

“I happened to be taking a walk. Nearby.” Chromedome’s spark clearly wasn’t in the bickering, judging from the way his optics darted from Prowl to Rewind. The cabling at his throat convulsed intriguingly as he swallowed. “Mind if I join in?”

“What do you reckon, Prowl?” Rewind asked.

Prowl’s smile widened. “Oh, I think there’s room for three.”


End file.
